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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
150
It
is
a
conquest
when
we
can
lift
ourselves
above
the
annoyances
of
circumstances
over
which
we
have
no
control;
but
it
is
a
greater
victory
when
we
can
make
those
circumstances
our
helpers,
when
we
can
appreciate
the
good
there
is
in
them.
It
has
often
seemed
to
me
as
if
Life
stood
beside
me,
looking
me
in
the
face,
and
saying,
"Child,
you
must
learn
to
like
me
in
the
form
in
which
you
see
me,
before
I
can
offer
myself
to
you
in
any
other
aspect."
It
was
so
with
this
disagreeable
necessity
of
living
among
many
people.
There
is
nothing
more
miserable
than
to
lose
the
feeling
of
our
own
distinctiveness,
since
that
is
our
only
clue
to
the
Purpose
behind
us
and
the
End
before
us.
But
when
we
have
discovered
that
human
beings
are
not
a
mere
"mass,"
but
an
orderly
Whole,
of
which
we
are
a
part,
it
is
all
so
different!
This
we
working-girls
might
have
learned
from
the
webs
of
cloth
we
saw
woven
around
us.
Every
little
thread
must
take
its
place
as
warp
or
woof,
and
keep
in
it
steadily.
Left
to
itself,
it
would
be
only
a
loose,
useless
filament.
Trying
to
wander
in
an
independent
or
a
disconnected
way
among
the
other
threads,
it
would
make
of
the
whole
web
an
inextricable
snarl.
Yet
each
little
thread
must
be
as
firmly
spun
as
if
it
were
the
only
one,
or
the
result
would
be
a
worthless
fabric.
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